51. Caleb
“ C aleb!!! ”
I skidded to a stop, my wolf jerking so hard in the direction of the call that I nearly gave myself whiplash.
I knew the origin of that cry instantly, and I had no choice as my body propelled itself in that direction. Emily was in trouble, and I’d do anything to protect her.
The fight was going so much worse than expected. I’d trusted Gray wouldn’t fight honorably, I just wished I was wrong. Dodging tranquilizer darts, silver daggers, and other wolfsbane weapons made everything so much more complicated.
What frustrated me was I couldn’t find Gray anywhere. Zach, Tayen, Carl, and I were all near the center of the campground, fighting tooth and nail. We figured most of the forces would go straight there, so we wanted to take on the brunt of them.
It was chaos. Pure chaos. But even after an hour of fighting, we hadn’t lost anyone in our little quartet. That was something to brag about.
Not that we were entirely alone. Out of the several thousand members of Lincoln Hills who lived in Denver, there were at least four hundred viable warriors defending our territory, plus the handful of shifters Tayen had brought. Men, women, everyone capable of fighting were there, spread out across the large territory that made up our pack’s home. Four hundred against a hundred enemy attackers should’ve been overwhelming odds, but between the weapons and Gray’s men setting fires, things were about even.
I was half-worried I’d lost the source of the call when that same cry echoed into the night sky again.
“ CALEB! ”
I swore my heart nearly shattered in my chest, but I wouldn’t let that slow me down. My feet flew across the earth, bringing me closer to my mate. Internally, I cursed myself; I always felt it was wrong to separate ourselves during the battle. But Emily didn’t know how to fight and still had trouble controlling her wolf, so I had to choose the best possible option.
Well, it wasn’t the best choice now, given her cry for help across the campground.
Nightmare scenario after nightmare scenario played through my head, and much as I tried to ignore them, it was impossible to stop my overwhelming fear. I didn’t know what I’d do if anything happened to her. Die? I couldn’t imagine living in a world without Emily, especially if she was gone because I’d failed her for a third and final time.
After two excruciating minutes, I could smell her, even through all the smoke, ash, and other battle scents. What I felt wasn’t exactly comforting, a mix of fear, shock, and anger, but it meant she was alive.
I didn’t want her to think she was alone, that no one was coming to help her, so even though it’d ruin any element of surprise, I howled into the night air. I knew she hadn’t been a shifter long enough to understand tones in a wolf call, yet I poured all my assurance and strength into my voice. I wanted her to know I wouldn’t let us get separated again. I’d had enough of that for one lifetime.
“Caleb! Caleb! I’m here!”
“Would you shut up?!”
That voice sounded vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t place it, and I only sped faster into the woods. I knew I was going at reckless speed, one where it was easy to collide with a low-hanging branch and hurt myself, but I didn’t give a damn.
Occasionally, recklessness paid off, which is what happened when I burst through a thick line of thorny bushes to find Emily laid out on the ground, a man standing over her.
No! was the one thought my mind produced.
My brain was flooded with information: the deep scratches rapidly healing across the man’s face, the large splotches of blood on his clothes, the long zip ties in his hand, and the bruise slowly shrinking on Emily’s cheek.
“Of course it’s you,” the man groaned, his dark eyes landing on me before he exploded into steam.
I jumped forward, jaws snapping as I tried to get at the enemy before he could fully shift. Whoever he was, he was fast , because the next thing I knew, he was leaping out to meet me.
We clashed in a mass of fur and furor, his jaw locking into my shoulder while my claws scored their way down his flank. The air filled with the smell of blood, but I took solace in the fact that Emily was already upright and scrambling away.
I didn’t care what happened to me as long as she wasn’t in danger. That was all that mattered.
My opponent and I slammed into the ground, both of us wounded, and rolled away from each other. My shoulder smarted something fierce, but I could already feel the muscles knitting themselves back together. Unfortunately, the opposing wolf was healing as well. The downside of a shifter-on-shifter battle was if both sides were equally skilled, it became a war of attrition of who could last the longest, bleed the most, and keep their energy up.
I liked to think my fervor for saving my mate would be enough to outdo the snarling beast about to charge my way, but I had to be practical. I didn’t know how long he’d fought, and I’d been going at it for an hour against multiple opponents. I felt worn down, with both my wolf and I struggling to react in time.
I didn’t care if I lost, though—not if I gave Emily enough time to get away. She was all that mattered. I’d managed to live my life and fuck it up, but I’d gladly give it away if she got to safety.
However, I preferred to avoid that option. We’d only just confessed our feelings to each other and started to become mates. I didn’t want to lose all that before we’d even begun.
Gray’s man snarled, spinning at the last second to kick at my face. It wasn’t a lethal move but a distracting one, as I liked to use it myself. Opponents would often snap at my feet, leaving their jaws closed while I whirled at their neck. It worked more often than you’d think, and I felt affronted that someone was using the same tactics on me.
Instead of biting his foot, I stepped backwards and to the side, placing myself perpendicular so when he blindly spun, I lunged forward and caught the side of his muzzle right in my mouth.
The high-pitched wail as I sank my teeth in was quite satisfying, and I gave him the hardest shake I could. It was difficult to snap a shifter’s neck while in wolf form, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t try.
Unfortunately, in the thirst to end our battle, I got too focused on the goal, and I braced once the wolf rapidly shifted back to human. Now his muzzle, which stretched my jaw, snapped, and he ripped out of my hold, with only a chunk of his fur coming off in my teeth. I inhaled it, my wolf choking, and had to pedal back to collect myself.
By the time I could breathe, my opponent was once more fully a wolf. Even the patch of hair I’d ripped out had returned. It was a good move, one I’d have to steal in the future, but I knew it had demanded a huge amount of his energy. Rapid shifting hurt a great deal. It was one of the reasons that new wolves, with so little control over how they shifted, often burned themselves out so quickly and had to retreat within their human body.
This time, with the element of surprise on his side, he lunged forward and caught me on the same injured shoulder. It was nearly fully healed, but now that same wound opened up. I felt nauseous. Trying to ignore it, I dug my feet in, shoving my shoulder further into his mouth to try and crack his jaw.
My opponent knew what he was doing. I didn’t think I was the best fighter in the land, not by a long stretch, yet I was good, and this stranger was pulling out tricks I didn’t expect. It was hard to surprise me in a fight. If I lost, it was either because I was inebriated or just not as strong as my opponent. It’d never come down to a matter of intelligence before.
If I wanted to beat him, I needed to have a paradigm shift.
He let go, with all the pressure shoving my shoulder into his mouth caused, and I barreled forward, ducking my head down to get under his sternum. Normally, it was a move no one would use as it exposed the back of the neck, but I judged it worth the risk.
Once my head was partially under, I slid forward like a dog asking to play. It took less than a second, but it put me in a solid enough position for me to suddenly launch upward onto my hind legs, sending my opponent crashing onto his back.
I felt triumphant when it worked, and his belly exposed itself to me. Snarling, I jumped forward, ready to bite into his abdomen and spread his innards out across the forest ground.
Let’s see him heal from that!
But right as I was about to land on my defeated opponent, steam burst from his body, and by the time I landed, I couldn’t see him at all.
What I could feel was a sharp, burning pain between my body and right foreleg.
I stumbled back, my wolf working of his own accord because he was terrified . Although I’d only experienced it twice in my life, I’d never forget what a slice from a wolfsbane-coated weapon felt like.
My body rapidly shrank as I tried to regain my balance, pitching this way and that. It was only my recent exposure to the plant that kept me standing, but even that couldn’t save me from losing my wolf form.
Everything grew hazy as I struggled to fight. I knew it was impossible, that wolfsbane always forced a shift, but I still had to try. For my sake. For Emily’s.
But I was no miracle, and soon enough, I ended up on my knees, heaving. At least I could tell I wasn’t going completely unconscious this time.
It felt like déjà vu once I raised my arms to fight, but couldn’t. I only watched as a wolf appeared from the steam I’d been stabbed in. Another rapid shift?! I’d drastically underestimated my opponent.
That would be my downfall.
The wolf took a couple of haughty steps forward. I could tell he was gloating, but there was nothing I could do.
“Leave him alone!”
Like an angel appearing out of nowhere, Emily threw herself on the wolf’s back. A valiant effort, but even if she slammed into him at full force, there wasn’t anything she could do to hurt him.
I was wrong: the zip ties I’d seen earlier were now in her hands, and she’d connected three of them together into a makeshift garrote.
“Emily!” I cried automatically as I attempted to stand.
But she didn’t need me, at least not now. In an impressive display of dexterity, she looped the connected ties around the wolf’s massive head, then jerked back.
Now, while we shifters healed from a lot of things, we did need to breathe.
She pulled tighter. Then tighter. The wolf threw her off, and that let me get back on my feet. But when I took a step, I ended up staggering while the enemy once again filled the area with steam.
How many times could that fucker shift? Even in the direst of situations, the most I’d ever managed was three full cycles, and that wiped me out for about a week. He was on, what, shift number five? Six?
“You bitch!” the man snarled as the steam dissipated, running towards where Emily had fallen while ripping the zip tie from his throat. I felt like I was watching history repeat itself as he tackled my mate, only for her to whirl around at the last minute, something metallic flashing in her hand.
Was that?—
The entire word froze as the telltale sound of a blade sinking into someone’s chest filled the small clearing we were in, and the man came to a shuddering stop above Emily.
“You…bitch…” he wheezed, weaker than the first time, before falling to the side. His breath bubbled for a second, then Emily pulled the knife from his chest, and it slowly gurgled out of the hole until it stopped.
“Caleb?” Emily asked shakily, throwing the blade to the side. I didn’t miss how her palm was blistered, no doubt from exposure to the wolfsbane coating the blade—even with a protective pommel, it hurt. I knew from experience that it burned against her hand like acid, yet she’d gripped it without an ounce of hesitation.
All to save me.
“Emily,” I breathed, then we were both stumbling towards each other, embracing with all we had.
I kissed her, because how could I not? I felt tears welling up in my eyes. They were full of complex feelings: relief that she was alright, happiness at holding her again, adrenaline drop-off from the fight, and frustration that the night still wasn’t over. Although Emily and I had found each other, Gray was very much alive, and his men were still attacking our people.
“I tried to hide,” Emily whispered when we parted, and I just held her tighter. The air around us was thick with wolfsbane, but I didn’t care.
“I know, baby, I know. You did brilliant.” I looked down at the dead shifter at our feet. “I think you saved my life.”
“I couldn’t let Bray hurt you.”
“Bray? You knew him?”
She nodded. “He was the one who found me when I shifted. Took me to that hotel.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. The thought that a predator had saved my mate made me sick. Had he been in Gray’s pocket even then? I had no way of knowing, and, well, it wasn’t like we could question him now.
“Come on,” I said. “Let’s get you out of here.”
“But what about everyone else?” Even on one of the most traumatic nights of her life, Emily’s first thought was still of others.
“Baby—” I started, but the night wasn’t in the mood to let me finish my sentence because both of us heard a strange crackle.
“What was that?” Emily asked.
“I’m not sure…”
The crackle sounded again. We both followed the noise to the body of the man who was supposed to belong to Tayen’s pack, but had betrayed all his brothers and sisters. After another burst of static, I realized what it was.
“I’m pretty sure that’s a walkie-talkie,” I said, kneeling to search Bray’s jacket and pants. I went carefully, just in case he had any other silver or wolfsbane weaponry, but luckily, there were no surprise barbs. Instead, I found a small yellow and black device.
“Holy shit, it is a walkie-talkie!” Emily exclaimed, her eyes wide.
“ Bray, I want an update. You said you caught the girl’s scent?”
Emily couldn’t recognize that voice, but I did. It was one that had haunted me for years.
“Is that…?” Emily started, as if she hardly dared to speak his name.
I only nodded in response. Because I couldn’t believe, out of all the fucking people in the world, that it was Gray talking over the little device.
“ Bray. Enough of the dramatics. Come in!”
Emily and I both stared at each other, no doubt uncertain of what to do. I’d been focused on getting her away, but the wheels in her mind were clearly turning.
“I… I think I have an idea,” she said eventually, a cautious smile spreading across her features.
“You do?”
“Yeah, but you’re not gonna like it.”